Abrading wheel



S. GOLDBERG ABRADING WHEEL Nov. 24, 1953 Filed Jan. 5, 1952 In KE'IJZEI? 1 I 7 Sam zzeZ add/fiery M 1%MM, M, an 1- Patented Nov. 24, 19 53 UNIT ears ATENT OFFICE ABRADING WHEEL Samuel Goldberg, Detroit, Mich, assignor to Lyon, Incorporated, Detroit, -Mich., a. corporation of Michigan 2 Claims.

consists of a heavy canvas which is relatively non-porous. When a bumng compound is applied to the periphery of the axially aligned canvas buffin sections, the porosity of the cloth is decreased even further, with the result that cloth wheels of this nature run very hot in operation, and special means must be provided for directing currents of air through these sections to avoid overheating.

Another distinct disadvantage of buffing wheels of this nature is their weight. When the cloth disks are assembled into a composite boiling Wheel of substantial thickness, the Wheel may weigh on the order of a hundred pounds or more, thereby making it diificult to place the wheel on an arbor and putting a substantial load on the motor used to drive the bufiing wheel.

I have found that a very efficient abrading surface can be produced from a compressed mat of bagasse fibers. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention I employ preformed buffing sections consisting of a felted mat of bagasse fibers of the type commonly employed in wallboards and sold commercially under the trade name Celotex.

The use of this type of self-sustaining board as a buffing element possesses several unique advantages. The quality of the bufiing accomplished by the added bagasse fibers is equivalent to, and in many instances superior to, the quality achieved from conventional cloth type bufiing wheels. The edge of the compressed bagasse fiber board which contacts the article being abraded is sufficiently rough to abrade gently the surface of the article being bufied without scratching it in any way. The inherent resiliency of the bagasse fibers, in addition to the coarseness of the mat, provides a bumng wheel structure which evenly and uniformly abrades the sur 1 face of the work Without scratching.

heat up as rapidly as conventional cloth disks. The compressed bagasse fibers, while being selfsustaining, nevertheless provide sufficient air spaces between the fibers so that air can circulate through the buifing wheel and travel to the portion of the edge of the Wheel immediately in contact with the article, thereby quickly cooling the edge.

Another surprising feature of the bufiing wheels of the present invention, as compared to conventional buffing wheels, is the fact that when a bufiing compound is applied to the peripheral edge, the compound, while glazing the edge of the wheel, penetrates only to a very slight extent into the pores of. the mat so that no appreciable decrease in porosity of the mat results.

Coupled with allof these other advantages, a mat of bagasse fibers has the added advantage of light weight, making the buffing wheel of the present invention far more easy to handle by the operator and requiring less power to perform the bufiing operation. 7

Not all of the conventional wallboard materials on the market possess the advantages of the compressedmat of bagasse fibers. A pressed mat of bagasse fibers is inherently resistant to .charring.

at elevated. temperatures, whereas wallboards manufactured from materials such as pine chips are not. Bufiing wheels composed of the compressed bagasse mat can be run for indefinitely long periods without evidence of charring or fracture of the mat.

An object of the present inventionis to provide an improved surface for abrading articles.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved, porous, light-weight buffing wheel assembly.

Another object of the Dresentinvention is to provide a porous 'bufiing wheel assembly com-' which involves employing a surface of a com pressed mat of bagasse fibers as the abrading medium. 7 While the manufacture of boards from bagasse fibers 1s quite old in the art, a description of the process involved is desirable in order to bring out the nature of the fibrous mat.

In the board-making process, bagasse, or sugar cane fibers, are cooked in digesters in the presence of water and alkali under agitation. The

cooking of the fibers in the digester serves to bring the relatively stiff bagasse fibers into a pliable condition, as well as liberating foreign matter and dissolving out organic matter. In the cooking stage the fibers are also sterlized. After treatment of the fibers in the digester, a suspension or slurry of the bagasse fibers in water is pumped to shredding machines or beaters, where the stock is beaten through perforated steel plates, thereby breaking up the bundles of fibers.

Next, the bagasse stock is pumped to washers, where fresh water is added to remove any soluble material remaining from the cooking operation. After washing, the bagasse fibers ma be mixed with waterproofing reagents, such as alum or rosin, and with a dry filler material such as wood fibers. The resulting fibrous mixture of bagasse fibers and wood fibers is next passed through a series of beaters, where the incoming stock isrefined to achieve the desired fiber length and width. For low density materials, a relatively coarse fiber is employed, while for high density products a relatively fine fiber composition is employed.

After treatment in the beating machines, the stock is pumped to board-making machines, where a large quantity of water is added and the fibers are felted into a board. At this. stage the stock may be treated with fungicides for protection against rot caused by micro-organisms. In the front part of the board-making machine two large mold rolls are provided, each being covered with a wire mesh, the two rolls cooperating 'to form the front end of a vat into which the pulp suspension is introduced. As the pulp suspension is squeezed between the cooperating meshes, the water drains out through the wire and a thick layer of pulp builds up on the wire surfaces. The pressure supplied by the forming rollers is not sufficient to laminate the pulp fibers but rather produces a felted fibrous mat.

The'wet sheet formed at the forming wires is then carried between wool felts through press rolls which squeeze out sufiicient water to reduce the moisture content of the board to a value in the range from about 50 to 55%. The final step of theprocess consists in passing the partially dehydrated self-sustaining fibrous mat through a drier which removes the remaining water from the board .and leaves the board bone dry. After exposure to normal atmospheric conditions, the board assimilates sufiicient water from theatmosphere to prevent splitting of the dried fibers.

The improved abrading characteristicsof the abrading wheels of the present invention are believed due to the inherent coarseness of the bagas'se fibers and to the porous nature of the felted fibrous mat. The random arrangement of fibers in this type of structure makes possible far more efiective abrading of metal articles than the use of bufiing wheels composed of woven or interlaced vegetable fibers.

A further description of the present invention will be made in conjunction with the attached sheet of drawings which, by way of preferred embodiment, illustrate improved bufiing' wheels produced according to the present invention- In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a view in perspective of a disk composed of felted bagasse fibers;

Figure 2 is an exploded view of the bufiing wheel assembly illustrating the manner in which .a pluralityof disks of the -ty-pe shown in Figure vicinity of their central apertures.

4 1 are engaged upon the arbor of a buffing wheel unit and locked in position thereon;

Figure 3 is a view with parts in elevation similar to Figure 2, illustrating the disks in assembled relation, with portions thereof broken away to illustrate the fibrous nature of the buffing wheel sections;

Figure 4 is an, enlarged view, with parts in elevation, and partially in cross-section, illustrating the bufiing wheel of Figure 3 after the periphery thereof has been contoured to provide a buffing surface for abrading an arcuate metal object; and

Figure 5 is a fragmentary view in elevation, and partially in cross-section, illustrating a modified formofathe invention in which a single integral piece of felted bagasse fibers is employed as the bufilng medium.

As shown in the drawings:

Reference numeral Ill denotes generally a disk or annulus of felted bagasse fibers of the type previously described, the disk It] being provided with a central aperture ll of sufiicient diameter to besnugly received upon thearbor of a buffing wheel assembly.

In Figure 2, a plurality of disks of the type illustrated in Figure 1 and numbered I2 through it are shown in axial alignment along an arbor l8 associated with the bufiing wheel assembly. The arbor I8 is arranged to receive a driving spindle and has an axial recess [9 (Figure 4) for receiving the spindlein driving relation. The arbor i8 also includes an enlarged annular flange portion 2! of a smaller diameter than the diameter of the disks [2 through IS. The opposite end of the arbor I8 is threaded as indicated at 22. A washer 23 is slipped over the threaded end of the arbor I8 and is followed by a spacer sleeve 24 and a threaded lock nut 25. As the lock nut 25 is threaded onto the threaded portion 22 of the arbor IS, the spacer 24 urges the washer 23 inwardly, thereby compressing the central portions of the disks I2 through l6 inwardly to reduce the effective thickness of the disks in the As the disks l2 through 16 are compressed together, they tend to bind against the arbor I8 and thereby prevent relative twisting movement between the buffing wheel section and the arbor shaft.

After assembly of the preformeddisks on the arbor shaft, the outer peripheries of the disks 52 through; it, may be shaped to conform to the shape of the article to be buffed. The felted bagasse fiber disks, when pressed together, are easily trimmed to any desired configuration to give a continuous buffing surface.

The modified structure of Figure 5 includes an integral, one-piece buifing wheel 38 composed of felted bagasse fibers and having its peripheral edge trimmedto the configuration of the article to be bufied. The-wheel 33 is held in fixed positionpn U the. arbor shaft between the annular fiange 2i and the washer23. In this embodiment of the invention it is not necessary to compress the ;center,of the buffing wheel 33 to any substantial extent, but merely sufiicient to hold the wheel 36 in non-slipping engagement with the arbor shaft.

After assembly of the wheel on the arbor shaft, a polishing compound is applied to the periphery of the wheel and the article to be buffed is then brought into abradingccntact with the periphery of the wheel whilethe wheel is being rotated at asufficiently high .velocity-. As previously menn r e ui ns commune; hen ppli d. to. th

periphery of the wheel, does not penetrate to substantial extent into the interstices of the fibrous mat, but is generally localized about the outer periphery. Because of this, the porosity of the bufiing wheel is not substantially altered by application of the bufiing compound, and air is free to flow through the porous buffing Wheel and thereby aid in cooling the surface of the wheel during the buffing operation.

It will be evident that various modifications and variations may be efiected without departing from the scope of the novel concepts of the present invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. An abrading wheel assembly comprising a rotatable arbor and an abrading wheel supported for rotation by said arbor, said abrading wheel including an abracling element comprising a selfsustaining felted mat of bagasse fibers.

2. An abrading Wheel assembly comprising a rotatable arbor and an abrading wheel supported for rotation by said arbor, said abrading wheel 6 consisting of a plurality of disks, each of said disks comprising a self-sustaining felted mat of bagasse fibers.

SAMUEL GOLDBERG. 5

References Cited in the file of this patent V UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 10 108,092 Barrett Oct. 11, 1870 392,979 Bacon Nov. 20, 1888 463,129 Yates Nov. 10, 1891 520,516 Cleary May 29, 1894 583,545 Phillippi June 1, 1897 895,641 Hyatt Aug. 11, 1908 0 2,085,142 Bowen June 29, 1937 2,108,985 Hague Feb. 22, 1938 2,424,873 Abbrecht July 29, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS 29 Number Country Date 289,325 France May 29, 1899 550,823 France Mar. 21, 1923 

